Digital Learning – Page 4 – Digital Learning Dispatches

On Wednesday, 11th March, Lord Puttnam, Digital Champion of Ireland, was in St Patrick’s College to officially launch Shaping the future – How technology can lead to educational transformation, which was edited by Dr Deirdre Butler and Margaret Leahy – both members of the Education Department and the NIDL ‘Digital Learning Research Network‘. Kevin Marshall of Microsoft was third member of the editorial team.

The twenty-first century presents challenges and opportunities in equal magnitude to policy makers for information and communications technology (ICT) use in education. In today’s world of a changing workforce, rapid advancements in technology and in-creased global competition, learning is more critical than ever. The need to have a long-term vision for education that ensures all students experience success and have the knowledge, skills, abilities and competencies to be successful in the twenty-first century was never more important.

The book charts some of the significant developments in relation to the use of ICT in schools in Ireland. It takes the format of a collection of essays that captures the views of a cross-section of people who have participated in the formulation of ICT policy and in the implementation of digital technologies in school systems in the north and south of Ireland over several decades. The topics covered are diverse, ranging from policy formulation and ICT infrastructure in schools to teacher professional learning and the design of learning environments for learning, teaching and assessment.

Speaking at the launch Lord Puttnam said “The development of creativity through digital technologies matters to our collective future, but most particularly to the future of our young people, and their prospects of securing the type of satisfying careers they really want. “Shaping the Future” reminds us that this task is both urgent and exceptionally challenging, yet it is one that’s absolutely within our grasp if we can only re-discover sufficient ambition, energy and imagination.”

Copies of the book can be purchased through The Liffey Press.

Project 252 is an innovative crowdsourcing initiative that is running during 2015. The project has been undertaken by Dr Enda Donlon who is a member of our Digital Learning Research Network.

The general premise of the project is simple. Every two weeks for the 52 weeks of the year (hence 252) the project focuses on a different letter of the alphabet – starting with A and going through to Z. For the two weeks that each letter is featured, participants are invited to contribute the details of an Ed Tech tool (for instance, an app, Web 2.0 service, software package, etc.) that begins with that letter. All submissions are currently grouped by letter and available via the project website. When the project reaches the halfway mark (letter M) a search facility will be opened that will allow visitors to search the directory using a number of criteria. There are also a number of additional features that will be unveiled in the coming weeks and months.

Project 252 invites contributions from those working at all levels of education (contributions are classified into a number of categories in this regard). Participants are invited to log in via their Twitter account to make a contribution or they can do so anonymously.

The project has just completed its focus on the letter ‘E’ and has (to date) compiled over 180 contributions from all levels of education and contributors from across the globe. With twenty-one letters of the alphabet and over nine months remaining, it is hoped that this number will continue to grow at a similar rate.

For further details and to contribute to the project please visit the Project 252. You can follow along on Twitter using the hashtag #proj252 or by following @proj252.